An Alpha to Omega
by Ripples by the Drop
Summary: Everyone has something they do best. Now, someone, somewhere, will learn that Kagura has a method in her madness. Rated for violence.
1. Little Girl Laughing

**An Alpha to Omega**

_Customary Disclaimer: _I don't own Fruits Basket.

_Rating:_ **PG-13** – for the angst, violence, andslight language later on.

_Alert! _There will plenty of what I can assume are spoilers. Fic assumes a pretty good knowledge of the manga, but it's not necessary. Just have fun with it, baby!

_Pairing:_ Yuki/Kagura.

_Author's Note: _I don't know Japanese. If I use a word or term incorrectly now or in later chapters, sorry. My school onlyteaches Spanish.

* * *

"_So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."_

**-Matthew 20:16**

Shigure chuckled. The diary, at some point in time, had evidently been attacked by what he guessed was a small child wielding a very large permanent marker. The book itself, complete with romping kitties and singing flowers on the cover, was still distinctly feminine beneath the faded graffiti, but the artist in question had managed to squash out any of its remaining girlish charm. Nearly all of the orange kittens had little anger marks hovering around their heads, and one – bizarrely enough – had a thick moustache drawn over it's cute, smiling mouth.

He could easily believe that the owner herself had added the touch-ups. From its split bindings down to its many rumpled pages, the whole book reeked of a lifetime's worth of affection and abuse. Flipping through thin leaves of paper contained within, he saw that page after page, many of them glued together with a child's sticky fingerprints, were filled to the brim with bold writing that rose and fell perfectly at each enunciation, mimicking the author's speech. Shigure could practically hear her voice when he read it, and it was _everywhere_.

He thumbed a bit further to the front of her diary. The family novelist had never known his cousin to be an avid writer, yet somehow, she had succeeded in filling a thickly-bound journal through both sides of the pages, and their margins as well; still, it made sense when he saw her early writings, printed in huge, aggressive characters with awkward gaps between. She wrote with a broad and heavy hand as it was, but as a child, her script had taken seven pages to write what Shigure could comfortably draft onto one. Even her recent writing towards the back of the book was still quite large, and not nearly as beautiful as Tohru-kun's. But it wasn't exactly ugly, either. More so than the powerful rants and raves, her occasional contemplative paragraphs shone with an intensity and force that brought them quietly to the forefront, like the book was shouting a whisper. The woman's writing exuded not beauty, but _character_.

Kagura had never been one of Shigure's closer cousins, but he knew full well that the intensity she generated on her "Kyou-hunts" didn't just disappear when she was quiet. Her personality was incorrigible, and felt with a depth equal to its strength. Tracing his fingers in the minute grooves her pen had flushed into the paper, he couldn't help but smile. Kagura, it seemed, never really acted out of character even when she was surprising everyone around her. No one had ever pinned down what it was in her personality that gave her such intensity; what guiding passion in her life strung together each swift move from violent passion to subdued fervor, the expected and the unexpected. As far as he knew, no one had really tried.

There were plenty of people who could easily argue that Kagura just didn't feel remorse the way her cousins did. They were probably right, too. But it occurred to him that they might be right for all the wrong reasons.

It had always seemed impossible to Shigure that someone so incredibly _loud_ could have flown so low under the radar for all these years. It wasn't so much a contradiction as it was an inconsistency: Kagura had never made her love for Kyou a secret; yet she had come out not only unscathed, but unbothered, after all these years. Even if she lived outside the Honke, and was last in the Juunishi's number besides, she was still a notable figure in the histories of both. It could not be ignored that in more ways than one, she was a senior – the two years she held over Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun allowed her a certain understanding of things they couldn't remember beyond a child's simple recollection - and as far as he had always known, she was the only senior without a blemish on her record where Akito was concerned.

Akito was very diligent about instilling whatever sense of urgent, pressing fear their instincts as subjects might fail to provide. _Every_one had _some_ kind of disquieting personal confrontation with the family head to speak of, when their relationship with their "god" had been established, and subsequently reinforced. Even Ayame had had his own private encounter that he still refused to recall out loud. It was almost a rite of passage. Under an order of power completely different from that of the world's, the Juunishi were forced to turn to each other for comfort and security. That fear was a binding force.

But the boar had never shown that fear; perhaps that was why she one of the least regarded of their members. Harmless, exuberant Kagura didn't have a messy history that people had to worry about. She didn't need to be handled with kid gloves. She didn't need to be figured into any balance of power because she had never even encountered one. It was what they had always assumed, and no one ever troubled themselves to think otherwise because it was a relief to have one more neutral character - one more step toward simplicity. There had always been rumors, but no one remembered. It was just easier to keep Kagura out of the equation altogether.

But nothing came easy in the Sohma family. The cold truth was that no one came into the Juunishi unscathed. The Juunishi god had only thirteen things to live for and to think about besides himself, and he had given himself plenty of time to kill before the bitter end. The more Shigure read that childish script, the more tangled and intricate her entries became under his eyes, the more it occurred to him that the explanation for Akito's discrepancy could be a very simple one: the family head had never made an exception in the first place. If it seemed impossible that Kagura had been able to escape notice all these years, it was only because it _was_ impossible.

Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that in searching for something that he had never truly expected to find, the family's shrewd and clever dog stumbled upon instead what he hadn't even thought to look for…and he found it all in a tiny girl's journal. Somewhere along his cursory examination, his fingers had caught on the most wrinkled of the diary's pages, and then, instead of turning sheets of paper, he had opened up something else entirely.

Shigure pressed his hands to his face to stave off the familiar burning in his eyes. The girl penned sorrow like a poet.

It was _easy_ to forget Kagura; reading the trembling script on those tenderly handled pages, he now knew that was why the boar had been able to continue doing what she did best for all these years, even while the world was rising and crashing to the ground around her. And no one was really aware that it was not only a strength, but a conscious effort as well. Her work wasn't noticed, so it really _was_ what she did best. Even when she was surprising everyone around her, Kagura never acted out of character.

"We're all so good at keeping secrets in this family," he said, tracing her writing blindly, "but we're even better at making them." Shigure folded the little book shut.

"I wonder if anyone but myself could have thought it…"

Sewing came quite naturally to Kagura, something she was very proud of. It was much in her habit and skill as her tantrums - something she was _not_ so proud of. Her temper had gotten her into a fair many scrapes in the past, and it didn't do much to gain the affections of anyone outside the members of her immediate family, who had the goodness and foresight to count her forceful personality as a sort of blessing in disguise.

Kagura herself didn't think it much of a blessing. She couldn't call it a curse - that would be especially petty, her extended family's unique predicament considered - but she couldn't say that she liked it, either. Most everything in her room had a touch of scotch tape somewhere as testament to the dubious odds of survival her belongings faced when pit against her frequent fits of anger, excitement, and elation. Some of her favorite china dolls had been patched up with slings and bandages while her clear craft glue mended them for good. Half of her childhood storybooks were split violently at the seams. Almost nothing was spared.

She had never broken things for the sake of breaking them - she was just a little too exuberant for her surroundings, sometimes. Maybe that was why Isuzu had refused to share a room with her from the get-go. When the horse of the Juunishi had moved in, Kagura's mother had been almost insultingly understanding of the new girl's predicament. So far, only a few of Isuzu's possessions had been broken in the bedroom she'd made of the old family office, but she seemed more inclined to take notice of the things that had been broken, than the things that hadn't. No one appreciated having their things mangled.

It was a comfort, then, that as much as Kagura could break things, she could also sew them back together with the occasional scrap of patience and so much thread. That was why she again found herself huddled over her small brown sewing machine, pulling cloth under the path of her needle with short-trimmed fingernails while her foot worked the pedal with rhythmic vigor. She had broken something again, and it had to be fixed - or else.

As a general rule, all of the boar's possessions received a lot of punishment, but her clothes in particular seemed to bear the brunt of her abuse. She had eventually learned through no small effort on her mother's part to either buy clothing that was especially forgiving, or reinforce a normal garment herself. Unfortunately, being part of the Juunishi meant that she was stuck with all of its bizarre exceptions, and this particular exception had ripped in three places before she'd even had a chance to put away the hanger - so to speak.

Kagura gave a lady-like snort. The Boar Ceremonial Dress was very handsome, and her mother had said that she'd even been the picture of innocent beauty when she wore it to the New Year's ceremony twelve years ago. But its layers of silk and delicately-wrought seams just shattered under her touch. Even when she successfully managed to put it on, one twirl in front of the mirror would provoke the all-too-familiar "_snack_" of bursting seams into the open.

If she didn't start practicing a little more feminine grace, the dress would begin to lose fabric from her repairs, and she knew as well as anyone that there was no room for visible fault - no matter how small - when it came to the New Year's ceremony. Akito had only been a child when she had danced last, but she could still remember his dark, glittering eyes raking over her body with that same flawless perception for error he still used daily to root out weakness, assess performance, and detect conspiracy.

His insight had always been god-like. Even into her adulthood, she had failed to banish the nightmares that hearkened back to the childhood years she had spent in his home.

Ironically, though, she rarely had nightmares about the New Year's Dances. She unerringly gave her mother full credit for this. Before Kagura's first performance, Mrs. Sohma had taken steps towards the girl's safety by teaching her young daughter how to mend clothes with a large child's needle. Kagura had taken a shine to the craft instantly, and willingly let her mother school her (if but for short periods of time) in the patience and prudence required for sewing, all for another chance at using the pretty silver needle. By the time of the dance, she had learned not only how to mend some of the simpler tears in her costume, but how to sit still as well. It had helped tremendously.

If the Kagura of the present was actually far more disciplined than the Kagura of the past, it stood to reason that she had been an absolute hellion before her little reform. Everyone seemed to remember her that way. But she'd never gotten in trouble with Akito for her temper – at least not enough to give her such nightmares. It had taken something very gentle, very different – "very un-Kagura-like," as they'd said – to give her the scars that simply wouldn't fade.

But, like the dress she was mending, Kagura had sewn up the tears in her soul and her skin with hurried stitches, and hidden the repairs where they couldn't be seen. Like the dress, she could never exactly be whole again, but it hardly mattered when she'd looked and acted so much the same after the fact. Every transfigured Sohma had done it before.

Maybe the difference was in how they were remembered. Even as far as secrets in her dysfunctional extended family went, hers seemed so strange, and so out-of-character to the few people outside of her immediate relations who knew it, that they'd had a difficult time believing it had happened in the first place. She had hidden her mending well, even if the stitches themselves weren't quite up to par.

Besides, there was something that Kagura did as well as her sewing - and it was easy to forget the last of the Juunishi.

She slipped a long, shiny pin from the fabric to place between her lips for safekeeping. She preferred pins with big, colorful heads in her sewing because more often than not she forgot to remove them if she used the tiny silver-tipped pins her mother was fond of. Her favorite pins, though, were easier to see (and remember) than the silver ones, so she had managed to remove them all on schedule, and make it through her half-formed ponderings to the last thirty stitches of her project without incident. A bit of backstitching here and there, some gentle tugs to fix the seams, and she'd be done! At one 'o clock in the morning, she was ready to call it a night.

It's never too late for a nice little incident.

When she eased her foot onto the peddle once more, instead of the familiar hum of the needle working up and down, she heard the high-pitched squeal of metal grating against metal, and her needle rose up out of the fabric empty.

Kagura froze. With trembling fingers, she lifted away the lid to the machine's undercarriage, and peered inside.

"Oh," she whispered. "Oh..._OH_…" Her fingers curled into fists. "OH-OH-_OHH_!"

The girl seized her sewing basket, and hurled it across the room, while her whisper finally threw itself into an ear-splitting crescendo: "_Oh_ _NO_!"

Downstairs, someone pounded on the ceiling beneath her feet.

She hung her head. This was bad. That had been _special _thread – and now she was out. She'd been so careful about requesting extra from the Main House, too! She had _counted_ on something like this happening, had made _preparations_ for it, and she'd still gotten herself in trouble! She wanted to snap the empty bobbin in two.

Instead, Kagura stomped over to her sewing basket, ignoring the glass window rattling in its frame with each heavy step. To deal with this particular snag, she knew she'd have to make a choice between risks. She could either try appealing for more of the approved thread and chance rousing the Main House's suspicions, or defile the boar costume with her own thread and risk getting caught. In both cases, she would end up facing the same person, and her back tingled at only the thought.

Her fingers ran over her spilled equipment gently. She couldn't help feeling a twinge of remorse when she saw all her bobbins strewn across the floor as they were, like jewels tossed from a china box. Indeed, as she went about collecting them, she slipped some of the larger bobbins around her fingers like rings for safekeeping. It was one of her favorite games. Sometimes she imagined that the tiny spools of thread were puppets dancing on her slim fingers, or offerings from a secret admirer.

The clean-up went on in a similar fashion, until, with a sudden gasp, she dropped a pair of scissors in clumsy surprise.

"Yuki!"

In an instant, her palm was stretched out in front of her to inspect a small, but full, bobbin glittering in against her hand. She'd found him!

"I was so worried!" she cried, all her anger forgotten. "I'd thought I lost you!" The spool of thread shined under her attention. On its face, a small mouse had been carefully drawn with a fine-tipped permanent marker, down to the tiniest whisker.

There were other bobbins around her fingers and in her basket that bore similar markings. On a spool of beautiful gold thread, a tiger's black-tipped ears and slightly wavering stripes were just visible, while the outline of a dog stood out against a rich, deep purple. A little ways beyond, a particularly large bobbin of bright orange thread bore the image of a cat, complete with anger marks and a moustache. Her lip trembled when she caught sight of it.

"Kyo-kun…" The word was soft and reverent. "Kyo…G-gomen ne…"

A flash of sunlight burned in her mind's eye; the air in her lungs grew stale. She remembered that feeling, and her breath was snatched right away with it.

Kagura clenched her fists, willing herself not to close her eyes, because then she knew she'd cry, and the scent of her tears on her cheeks and eyelashes would bring it all back to suffocate her right there in the protection of her own childhood room. A sound, a touch…

She clenched her fists harder, and the bobbin dug into her palm's soft skin. She hissed in pain, and opened her hand. There, in its center, a little mouse looked happily up at her with winking eyes.

In an instinctual effort at modesty, her hand flew to her mouth to hide the smile forming on her lips.

"There will always be the good with the bad…" The words were muffled against her palm, a warm fluttering breath on her skin, but she still heard them well enough. She clapped her hands on her knees and shook her head. The burning light faded away into the gentle glow of her lamp's light reflected in the dark window. A deep breath brought fresh air.

"We all get our chance, Kyo," she said softly, and placed the orange bobbin in its basket with the others.

A few minutes of silence passed, and soon the rest of her equipment was nestled in the basket's soft cloth, arranged in comfortable order. There was only one small space left vacant, and she held its tenant in her hand. Her eyes darted to the unfinished "project" on her desk.

Kagura laughed, and clutched the little mouse bobbin to her chest like a child hugging her favorite doll. "Yun-chan!" she cried. "I only just find you, and already you're giving me another chance! Arigatou!"

Deft fingers unwound the little spool's thread, and stretched it out for inspection. It was just as she remembered – a beautiful milky silver that had a delicately opaque sheen infused at its core. To her, it looked someone had taken the real Yun-chan's hair and spun it with white silk to make this singularly exquisite line of cord that had grown to be her favorite in the years it had spent in her possession. She had never been able to bring herself to use it. It was too rare and strong to use in her homely projects, and it stung her heart to think of running out.

But now she needed something rare and strong, and her precious thread fit the bill. It didn't exactly fit the Main House's thread, but not for lack of quality. No one could say that it defiled her costume. It made it better.

Perhaps that was why she decided to take the chance of using her own material instead of approaching Akito directly. More than anything, it made her happy to think of the thread being put to use where it was needed. It seemed sad to her for a whole spool of thread to sit idly on a shelf, beautiful and intact, but useless. Thread was meant to be seen and tested and used. It was meant to become involved in a greater picture. So Kagura thought that as beautiful as it was in her hand, it would look a thousand times more magnificent in a project equal to it – and she had finally found one.

In the chaotic mess of her spilled tools, she had found a thread and a purpose to make everything fall back into place, and she couldn't ask for a better reason to use both.

A knock sounded at her door, and immediately it creaked open to reveal her visitor. Rin leaned her imposing figure against the doorway, watching Kagura swivel around in her chair with hooded and eyes and folded arms. She flashed a thin smile.

"You're still up?" the horse inquired tonelessly, gliding into the room.

Kagura nodded, and opened her mouth to form an excuse, but a wide yawn shoved the words back down her throat. She blushed.

Rin ignored her, instead turning her attention to bundle of cloth set at Kagura's sewing machine. The boar watched her finger the slippery silk with distaste. "What is this?"

Kagura covered a smile with her hand. Though her cousin still spoke with her usual clipped tone, her eyes were always just a little bit softer for Kagura when the two were alone together. It was a rare demonstration of trust and faith that Kagura knew better than to openly acknowledge, but nonetheless reveled in with as much caution as she could muster.

"The Boar's New Year's costume," she answered, casting a weary eye on the dress' ornate matching headdress situated in the corner. "I wanted to get it done tonight so I could finish patching up the crown tomorrow."

"You're not getting it done tonight," Rin said shortly. "From what I heard downstairs, you've messed it up again."

She rubbed her eyes, letting another yawn slip out. "G-gomen…it just seems that the more effort I put into repairing it, the more repairs I need to make in the first place."

"Why are you screwing up on this dress in particular? They send all the other costumes to you for repairs, don't they?"

Kagura nodded bleakly.

Rin wandered over to a small pink bookshelf in the room, and ran her fingers over the spines of the books. "Well, I never heard you whine about fixing the dog's dress last year. Why are you having so many problems all of a sudden?"

"I don't wear those costumes. They're all so cute and pretty – you would never know it because it's dyed so black, but up close, Kisa-chan's dress has some of the rarest silk around! It looks like a panther's fur, and all these hidden spots come out under the light-"

"-Beautiful, I'm sure," her companion interrupted, eyes still turned to the books. "But why do you never rip them? Just because you don't wear them doesn't mean you don't have plenty of chances to rough them up."

Kagura fiddled with the mouse bobbin in her hands, watching her cousin in silence. "Eh… I don't know, really."

Rin narrowed her eyes, but let the subject drop. "Hey – what's missing here?" She pointed to a gap in a row of neatly shelved hardbacks. "Isn't this where you keep your diaries?"

Kagura stretched her arms over her head, yawning out a "Hai." She smiled. "That's where I keep the ones I've filled up. I like to flip through them sometimes - so many lovely memories!"

"Where is it?"

"Ah, I took the pink one with me to Shii-chan's house the other day when I spent the night!"

"Why would you take a diary to _his_ house?" Rin cried, clapping her hand on Kagura's shoulder. "We're talking about one of the most selfish, nosy-"

"Shii-chan's not like that!"

"He is. I can't think of a stupider move than to bring something more personal than a toothbrush within ten yards of that dog."

"I had it wrapped up in my pajamas! Sometimes reading that book helps me remember my visits to his house when I was little. It's nice…"

"It's stupid. Where is it _now_?"

"Ano… it should be in my overnight bag." Kagura picked up a large kitten-covered bag, and turned it upside down over her bed. Out tumbled clothes and underwear and a few other odds and ends, but nothing much heavier than the bag itself. She shook from the corners, but nothing came.

For a small, terrible moment in time, the whole room seemed choked with sunlight.

"It's not there, is it?"

Kagura clutched her chest, trying to absorb the evidence spelled out clearly on her bed. She wrenched the little bag open, only to see empty space, end to end. She gave it another disbelieving shake, but still nothing came.

"A-ah… Nani?" She was barely aware of Rin's discerning gaze following her as she began to tear through the contents of her bag, turning socks inside out and emptying pockets. When she found nothing, she frantically seized her underwear, and began to shake it over the floor.

"Kagura…it's not there."

She spun around and faced her stone-faced cousin. "How can you be so calm about this? It has to be here! Help me look!" Wrenching open her closet door, she threw boxes and piles of fabric over her shoulders in a maddening, desperate search for something she just knew she had only misplaced. It didn't matter that she had managed to rip the door from its hinges. It didn't matter that her china dolls were on the floor in pieces because she'd thrown a shoe the wrong way. And it didn't matter that she had never – not once in her life – simply lost her diaries. Against fact and fiction, Kagura could only choose to believe the impossible.

"Stop it! You're being an idiot! It's not like there's going to be anything in there that would surprise us. 'My Kyo-kun, my love! When we are married, we shall live in a little yellow house on a hill, and our children will be named-'"

"You don't understand!" Kagura cried, and she clutched at Rin's nightshirt with trembling fists. Tears began well up in the corners of her eyes, but she choked them down to face her cousin's dispassionate gaze.

"Kagura-"

"You don't get it! It's here! You have to help me look!"

"Look, I didn't want to tell you this, but you're already giving me a headache as it is… I went rummaging around in your room this morning-"

"_Nani!"_

"Shut up and listen! I was looking for money to buy lunch, and I didn't see your diary. If it was here, I would have found it. I _know_ how to find what I'm looking for."

Kagura released Rin, hands clasped together pleadingly. "Then you've got to help me look for it! You could've missed a spot! Or it could be downstairs or in the bathroom!"

"Look, what is so _important_ about this stupid diary of yours? I already told you, no one's going to _care_! If anything, it serves you right for carrying it around with you in the first place! The whole world doesn't work on the honor system, Kagura! I mean, look around you! You don't even hide it when you have it _here_! Anyone could just walk into your room, and then-"

She couldn't help it – Kagura turned away. "But…" She spoke, whispering the words through her hands. "But… I promised. I promised myself…" She nearly jumped when she felt hands on her shoulders, gripping the tense bone and sinew loosely.

"We'll look, okay? We'll look through the house, and if there's nothing there, we'll go to the dog's house tomorrow. I'll wrench it out of him." Rin gave her a reassuring squeeze.

Kagura laughed, and hugged her cousin gently. "No, no... it's okay, Isuzu. I don't think anyone could read my old handwriting, anyway. I'll go over tomorrow and ask Tohru-chan."

Rin snorted. "I'll bet that idiot found it in a room somewhere and gave it to Shigure. 'Look, Shigure-san!'" Rin squeaked, holding well-manicured hands to her chest in a sardonic semblance of Tohru's typical enthusiasm. "'I found this little pink book! Is it yours?' If you're going to go, you better haul your butt over there fast."

Kagura smiled shyly. "Don't worry…you know, I've always been good at finding what I'm looking for."

"Moshi moshi?"

"Haa-san! I've got a riddle for you!"

**_

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_**

**_A Little Plate's Rondo:_ No. 1 **

Something to note: a lot of people don't seem to like this pairing, I think. Oh well. I hope you'll give it a shot, anyway.

So my dog did about a month in one of those obnoxious Elizabethan collars, and I still feel really bad for her. But she's already forgotten about it, so no love lost, I guess.

**_About this Fic:_ No. 1**

I think the reason that getting fanfiction characters right is so difficult is exactly because they're often based on exaggerated moments, ideals, and simplified personality traits. I really do believe that in real life, most of the Sohmas would probably be far more dysfunctional than they already are. Kagura especially I feel has gotten the short end of the stick on this one. One moment we're dealing with a somewhat complex, self-aware entity, and all of a sudden she becomes an exaggerated, larger-than-life lunatic. The reality –in my personal opinion, mind you- is that most people can't be so seriously unstable and be happy.

So I kind of interpreted Kagura's character as a more grounded one, and tried to find a common thread to string it all together. I didn't think I could write a serious short story with a character that had no drive besides an undying love for Kyou. I mean, to adapt that behavior to real life and study the motives behind it, we'd probably come up with some very disturbing, unpleasant revelations. That is why I kind of toned down her rages and fights, and added a degree of introspection that the "real" Kagura probably doesn't make much use of. I wanted her to be relatively self-conscious and self-aware, so I could write for a character that wasn't always reacting instead of making decisions of her own. Simply put, I couldn't have her being ruled by her impulses 24/7, because she couldn't really be written in as a main character.

I hope I haven't offended. I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but I thought I'd stick out my reasoning for tweaking her character a bit to make it suitable for writing an in-depth fic. I have been trying to stay as true as possible to her exuberant nature, and I hope it won't disappoint. ;-)


	2. Little Girl Losing

**An Alpha to Omega**

_Customary Disclaimer: _I don't own Fruits Basket or anything in it.

_Rating:_ **PG-13** – for the angst, violence, and mature concepts (no, not _that_ kind of mature, y'all).

_Alert! _There will plenty of what I can assume are spoilers. Fic assumes a pretty good knowledge of the manga, but it's not necessary. Just have fun with it, baby!

_Pairing:_ Decided. Yes, yes, I know.

_Author's Note:_ I'm using a limited fangirl vocabulary here. I used "baka," "onegai," etc. where I felt it would add to the rhythm or otherwise sound natural and unforced. I can't apply a strict "Japanese-only" policy for certain words. Sorry! I don't read flames – say it, don't spray it.

* * *

"Haa-san! I have a riddle for you!"

Sun Tzu, author of the ancient masterpiece The Art of War, is generally credited with coining the famous phrase, "keep your friends close but your enemies closer," sometime between 600 to 300 years before the birth of Christ. In the 20th century, the phrase became even more well-known through that beloved American classic, _The Godfather: Part II_. The sentiment has apparently had enough merit – truth, perhaps – to sustain it for more than millennium, from the lips of an old Chinese general to the lips of Al Pacino. However….

"Haa-san!"

… Hatori sometimes had difficulty seeing any merit in the phrase at all. When a friend is dangerous enough – volatile enough – to be your enemy, what do you do? How close is close enough?

"Haa-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Haa-_san_! Are you that overjoyed to hear my voice that words fail you? Or do you hear Tohru-kun humming in the background? Oh, your mind does wander, but to where, I wonder?"

And more importantly, how do you keep a person close when they drive you crazy?

"Akito's had another relapse, Shigure. You have twenty seconds to give me a reason to not hang up."

"You're so cruel, Haa-san! Only Aaya knows how to appreciate my company. Whatever happened to the warm summer nights when we would all stay up late talking and–"

_Click_.

Hatori rubbed his eyes with one hand and held back a yawn with the other. So many times he had considered unplugging his phone for the night and letting Shigure talk himself hoarse to a dial tone; but of _course_ he was a doctor, and had an obligation to his patients to be available at all times, no matter how petty their complaints. The truth of the matter was that he just couldn't avoid a conversation with Shigure if his cousin was dead-set on having it.

As inescapable as the curse, inescapable as his duty to keep Akito sound and soothed, was Hatori's life-long relationship of give and take with Shigure. His cousin lived in a world of subtleties and secrets, patience and sleight-of-hand. Information was king, and somewhere along the way, Hatori had become a Dealer. Because he was so close to the Main House, it was no wonder that Shigure went to the doctor for information he couldn't get himself.

When the dog was in a mood to deal, he often approached Hatori with a gleeful shout and palms open and visible as a gesture of parley. He might settle on the floor after some friendly bickering and talk, or light a cigarette and simply throw out an occasional comment. But after a while, he would change the rhythm of the conversation, insinuating himself into Hatori's thoughts just long enough to throw the doctor off for a single crucial second. Shigure never pushed beyond that certain point. He would not have been successful anyway, and Hatori had his ways of making it clear when the boundaries of their friendship were being overstepped. They respected each other, so Shigure's game had rules.

Shigure was aware that the doctor always knew what he was up to when he gave that certain wicked smile, and Hatori was aware that his friend knew this. All the cards were set out on the table, quietly dealt face-down, and softly turned over with each wayward glance and heavy word. The only thing that Hatori didn't really know about the game was how Shigure kept score. It was a dangerous business.

_Ring… Ring… Ring… Ring…_

And an exhausting one.

Hatori snatched the phone from its cradle. "What do you want?"

"Haa-san! Such cruelty!" Shigure's dry sobs echoed over the receiver, making Hatori frown with perceptible distaste. 48 hours without sleep could do that to a person.

"Akito has another round of medication in ten minutes. Make it short, or call Ayame."

"Aw, Haa-san-"

"Shigure…" Hatori's voice elevated slightly, a quiet, throatless growl issuing from behind pursed lips.

His cousin was unperturbed. "I wanted to consult Haa-san on a matter of particular interest, but if you're too busy…"

"I am."

"Fine, fine! No need to hang up!"

Hatori sighed, but waited for Shigure to continue, turning his attention instead to a loose stack of paperwork spilling out of his inbox onto the potted plant Momiji had set on his desk earlier that month. The boy wanted a pet badly, but it was out of the question, and a plant on his guardian's desk seemed to be the closest thing that Momiji could find to a compromise. He liked bright, living things…

"Kagura paid us a visit a few days ago," Shigure said matter-of-factly. "Actually, she said she came to visit Tohru-kun, but the effect was still the same."

Hatori's lips twitched. "Do you need me to treat some injuries?"

"Well, Kagura-san took a fall down the stairs, but she's been the only casualty. Strange, ne?" Shigure's tone was even-spread and pleasant.

"Do you need funds redirected from the Honke over to you for repairs?"

Shigure chuckled. "No, there's nothing I can't make Kyou-kun clean up later. I think he's just happy to still be in one piece."

"Mmm," Hatori intoned, rummaging through his drawers for a pen that Momiji hadn't yet chewed the end off of. Now that he thought of it, Momiji must be spending a lot of time in his office when he wasn't around. The plant on his desk was flourishing, even though he'd never thought to water it. The boy must be watering it for him…

"But we discovered something, Haa-san! Kagura-san is fond of the writer's craft! Did you know that she keeps a diary? And here I thought that Aaya and I were the only ones in the family with a creative spark."

A stack of papers fell off of Hatori's lap onto the floor. Crap.

"Shigure, I have a lot going on right now, so if there's no damage, then-"

"I thought you would be curious, Haa-san," Shigure purred. There was a smile in his voice. "Not many of us know as much about Kagura-san as you do."

For a brief second, the world seemed to stop. Hatori froze in place, barely aware of the knobby pen fixed limply between his fingers. He thought he heard a faint ticking noise, like a cheap ballpoint pen being clicked on and off in rapid succession – the voice of his own anxiety. He realized too late, as he so often did, that he had failed to notice the shift in their conversation until it was upon him. Without Shigure's movements and expressions to guide him, he hadn't caught the signs that his cousin intended to bring out his playing cards for another game of winner-takes-all.

Now, suddenly, Hatori had been dealt his deck, and his friend and opponent was waiting. Shigure obviously knew that he had hit his target, because he slipped back into that easy, pleasant tone.

"I never thought of Kagura-san as the writing type, but she has years' worth of classic Kagura material here. She's even got that time she took your stethoscope to play doctor with Momitchi. Do you remember that?" he asked, laughing comfortably.

Hatori found himself nodding even though there was no one to see the gesture. "I do," he said quietly. "I was scheduled for a heart-surgery observation the next day, and my supervisor made me work overtime for losing my equipment." Hatori paused. "Is there something you want to confess?"

More laughter. "Haa-san! You're so suspicious! You don't make much of a priest for confession."

"That's true… but you said you've got some 'classic Kagura material…'" Hatori frowned. "Did you steal her diary, Shigure?"

"Of course not," Shigure protested. "I would never steal such a precious possession! I simply borrowed it from her. Our stories are all wound together, Haa-san," he added. "She may have written it, but it's no different than reading my own journal, or even Kyou-kun's secret poems. We are snorted disbelievingly. "I don't know what's worse – that you'd steal a girl's diary and be so absolutely unashamed about it, or that you'd try to justify it so dramatically, and with so little taste."

"I told you, I didn't steal it," his cousin whined.

"Well, that's a relief," the doctor bit sarcastically. "I was wondering if I'd have some work to do on you after she came to collect."

Shigure sighed straight into the receiver. "Okay, Haa-san, point taken, point taken. Actually, she left it here. I have it in my safekeeping until she comes back. I have no doubt that she will. It is a _very_ important book, after all."

Haotri's grip on his pen tightened. The ticking sound in his brain was growing louder now, more rapid and defined so that it was more of a steady low-pitched buzzing. There was something he was supposed to be catching from all this, something Shigure was trying to find out, but he couldn't quite pin it down.

Hatori cleared his throat, interrupting his own train of thought. "So you have her diary?" he asked, groping blindly for the topic at hand.

"I have it in my safekeeping, yes."

"She'll kill you when she finds out- you know that, don't you? Don't come crying to me with some ridiculous sob story when she starts breaking fingers."

"Aw, Haa-san, I think Kagura-san has her gentle side, too. Do you remember how she used to lead Kyou-kun and the others around the dojo like some big, bossy mother hen when they were little?"

Hatori imagined that his cousin was smiling. "I never saw it for myself, but I heard stories," he said. "None of us were very interested in them then."

"But they're interesting now, aren't they?" Shigure prodded. "Aren't you curious about her at all?"

"No."

"Because you already know what's in here, or because you don't care?"

"Because I have an actual job to take care of," the doctor snapped. Shigure was racing full-speed to the cut-off point of their conversation. Maybe Hatori really would unplug his phone…

"Hai, giving innocent victims their semi-annual shots, and celebrating years of abusing the Hippocratic Oath on your most _obliging_ patient. My arm still hurts from my last visit." Shigure sighed dramatically. "How does Kagura take her shots?"

"You're obviously very proud of yourself for stealing Kagura's diary if you keep bringing her up. But if you want to brag about your theft, you should talk to someone who doesn't have an appointment with her this week."

"Hai," Shigure agreed, and then his voice took on a dreamy quality. "Kagura…she is so driven by impulse. It's a wonder she never got herself into more trouble than she already has."

Hatori said nothing.

"She did a bit of good for the others when they were young, I think," Shigure continued. "Even Yuki-kun, perhaps."

"…Yuki was kept away from her. She is not one of the elect few that Akito chose for him," Hatori answered quietly. "She is not close enough."

"It's true that she is the last in the curse. But Yuki-kun and Kagura-san are both two ends of the same circle."

"A circle doesn't _have_ ends."

"Hai, but the animals stood in a line long before Kami-sami put them in the stars." Shigure's voice was thoughtful even over the faint heat of static building up on the phone. "Even if she's the least of us, her station is still notable, and she's taken to it naturally. It's a lot of confidence for someone at the tail end of an operation."

Hatori frowned again. "Kagura has never challenged Akito."

There was small chuckle. "Never intentionally, perhaps," Shigure replied, and his words hung in the air, echoed by the building static.

_Keep your friends close…_

There was a moment of silence Hatori had, to appreciate about how disturbing all of this was - not just the conversation, but the in which it was being carried out His cousin always waited until he could see Hatori in person to make any sort of serious conversation. They were friends after all, so even if they were going to play Shigure's tedious little game, Hatori could at least enjoy a smoke and the pleasure of his cousin's company if they talked face-to-face. This was the first time Shigure had ever initiated a conversation over the phone like this.

The _click-click-click_ing noise in his brain was growing louder. He wanted to believe that the dog had called him because he was bored or too lazy to make the walk in the rain to the Honke. He wanted to believe anything but what was beginning to become crystal clear to him, because Shigure was breaking a pattern by playing games on the phone instead of in person, and a break in pattern with Shigure meant a break in the status quo.

_…but keep your enemies closer._

It was a while before Hatori spoke. "Are you concluding all of this from her diary, or is it just personal speculation?"

Shigure gave him the perfect non-answer: "I'm not concluding anything, Haa-san."

As the other man continued playing his little game, the doctor realized that this discussion apparently meant much more to Shigure than he'd initially thought. Something was forcing his cousin prematurely into action, and it seemed to involve Kagura, of all people, and her little diary. Hatori was not stupid. Like a dog senses a storm coming by a change in barometric pressure, Shigure had sensed something changing in the family dynamics, and was running with it, maybe even scrambling to keep up. That was why Shigure had broken the status quo - broken his usually slow, methodical method of approach - and Hatori knew that he was probably too far behind already to restore it. At that moment, Hatori Sohma hated Shigure for what he would be forced, by a distant, muted conscience, to ask next.

"Shigure," he said lowly, over his cousin's prattling, "is someone in trouble?" He covered his injured eye with his only free hand.

His friend was silent, and Hatori thought he might not answer him at all, when Shigue's voice floated over the phone:

"No, Haa-san. But Kagura-san may change that – for herself, or others, I don't know."

"Whatever you think you've read in her diary, Shigure, it doesn't matter. It's not in Kagura's nature to meddle in any affairs outside her own," Hatori resisted.

"…It's not in your nature to meddle either, Haa-san," Shigure said, his voice quiet but clear. "But… will you try to help her, when the time comes?"

Hatori rubbed his dead eye harder, gritting his teeth in pain that his body was registering, but his mind was not. He hated Shigure right now, painting him into a corner yet again; and his voice was so soft and so heavy and so _present_ that it made Hatori feel like he could reach out and hit Shigure even though they were speaking over the phone, and he hated Shigure for making him want to.

"I'm a doctor, Shigure," he bit out. His knuckles whitened around the pen in his other hand.

"Hai, a doctor," his cousin answered quickly. "But what about the stripes on her back? Did you care for them when they were still fresh?"

There it was. He was so shocked that Shigure _knew_, that he had actually said it, that the words tumbled out before he could stop them.

"I wasn't a doctor then."

And it was done. Hatori could see Shigure gathering up his cards into a winning hand as the defeated silence buzzed over the phone, a crackle of static and weary _click_ing. With his own mistake, he realized what Shigure had wanted, and he could never take it back.

He hadn't denied what Shigure said about Kagura. He had confirmed that he _knew_, that he _knew_ that old ugly stain still existed under layers of paint and happy words. What Shigure had gleaned from the girl's diary, he had affirmed simply by acknowledging what now could irrefutably, without a doubt, be called a _fact_.

_"What about the stripes on her back?"_

Hatori barely registered Shigure telling him that he'd be over some time with some of Tohru-kun's cooking, and that he'd visit Momitchi, too, and instead just nodded, silent and numb, towards the receiver.

_...The stripes are still there…_

He could still hear the static when he hung up.

* * *

_Oh, this was a **horrible** chapter to write. I know it's full of mistakes, but I'll have to revise it later. I guess I'd rather just not wait until its perfect because that's what kept me from posting for so long in the first place. LOL, I need to get over myself. I hope you enjoy!_

_Thank you all so much! _

_**S.B. Kisses: **Thanks! I absolutely agree – Kagura gets such a bad rap, but she has so much to offer! I hope I can do her justice._

_**Lil-Sun-Rei:** I'm glad you thought that the characters were believable, I worry a lot about that. Thank you!_

_**SailorKagome: **Thanks, Tiph. ._

_**Arae:** Thanks! I was hoping I could give her a little more than the casual treatment. A lot of people are starting to see what a great character she is, I think. There are so many great fics out there, LOL._

_**diety of death1: **Thank you!_

_**Mistress of the Sea:** Thanks! I'm hoping to not drag out the secret too long... she was a kid when she wrote it, so she explains things very simply and quickly. The drama is more in seeing everyone who knew about it have to face each other because the proof is out, thanks to Shigure. _

_**Reni-Chan: **Boy, I feel guilty… I hope this makes things a little better… ._

_**prettypinkpeacock:** Thanks! This was a really hard chapter for me, and I was shy about putting it out, but when I actually looked and saw that I had reviews, it kind of gave me the gumption to put more. LOL!_


	3. Little Girl Learning

**An Alpha to Omega**

_Customary Disclaimer: _I don't own Fruits Basket or anything in it.

_Rating:_ **PG-13** – here for violence, angst, language, and some very light innuendo.

_Alert! _There will plenty of what I can assume are spoilers. Fic assumes a pretty good knowledge of the manga, but it's not necessary. Just have fun with it, baby!

* * *

_"One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this."_

**_- _Don Quixote, de la Mancha 1605-1615**

The street lamps had hopped to life hours ago, lights filtering down through the thick air like a rank of pale orange ghosts in the distance. It seemed that with winter approaching, the entire city began lighting up earlier and earlier to repel the coming dark.

The lamp behind her flickered off with a buzz, and Kagura jumped visibly. A curse was working its way through her lips before she reminded herself that, contrary to Isuzu's example, it wasn't ladylike to swear. She shuffled to the working lamp on her right, and realized that she looked like she was situated beneath an orange spotlight, completely alone on a dark and empty stage. There weren't even moths around, fluttering and circling the bulbs. If it was too cold for them to be in flight, it was certainly too cold for her to be standing outside of Tohru's workplace, but Kagura didn't see how she had much of a choice. She knocked her brown boots together and tried to fight back the chills.

She'd never been to Tohru's work before, so she was a bit surprised on arrival to find that it was actually one of Momiji's father's many buildings. She recognized the logo fixed above the drab gray building. Once upon a time, her father had done frequent business with her cousin's father. That was a long time ago.

In any case, Kagura had marveled at this surprising coincidence at first, but the novelty quickly faded when the streets began to get dark and Tohru still didn't emerge.

Isuzu had said that it was important that Kagura make her visit to Shigure's house a surprise, so he wouldn't have time to make any extra plans before she got there. Then, as Isuzu put it, Kagura would have to do nothing short of slamming Shigure to the ground and purring threats into his ears until they bled if she wanted to get her diary back. Although Kagura did like to use Shigure for practicing her women's self-defense moves, she was instantly repulsed by the idea of straddling him on the floor or any other surface; so she'd come up with her own plan and opted to surprise Tohru instead. Not only was she her friend - she was also less likely to grope her in fight.

Speaking of whom. A stir across the street drew her attention to the building's entrance, where several women in blue uniforms were exiting noisily into the empty streets. Kagura squinted at the figures lingering at the doors, hoping to catch a glimpse of her friend, but all of the women she saw were older – older than Kagura's mother, even. She couldn't catch a single note of Tohru's bright and chipper voice amidst their listless chatter.

One of the workers, with a handkerchief tucked into her removed gloves, noticed Kagura staring at them, and Kagura ran over, feet closed and her handbag clutched tightly to her chest. The women looked surprised to see her, but most smiled anyway as she edged her way, timidly, to the one who had caught her eye.

"Are you waiting for someone, dear," the woman asked, glancing at Kagura's cold, pink face. "Anyone in the building? Why not wait in the lobby where it's warm?"

Since Kagura figured she couldn't say, "_it's because I hate your boss, Momiji's-Father-san, and I'd probably strangle him if I got the chance_," she decided to ignore the last question and move straight on to the point.

"Ano," she began shyly, covering her lips with a frozen hand. "Ano…does Honda Tohru-san work here?"

A few of the ladies chuckled, and one said, "It's always her they're looking for, ne?" They giggled and exchanged meaningful looks. Kagura could only guess what they were laughing about.

"Kagura-san?" Tohru appeared behind the other women and dashed around them to meet her. "Kagura-san!" She was breathless and speaking fast, a flurry of hair and cuffs and socks in the cold. "What are you doing here? That is to say, I'm glad to see you, it's an honor really…"

Kagura gave a relieved nod, and glanced over her friend's shoulder at the cleaning ladies watching them silently. Tohru stopped speaking long enough to follow her gaze, and jumped like she was on fire. Kagura could practically see her realizing that she'd turned her back to the other women in her excitement, and the apologies began to spring from her mouth before anyone else had a chance to react.

"Sumimasen! Sumimasen, minna-san! Arigatou gozaimasu for your kindness to Kagura-san and myself!" She bowed quickly, deeply, and the women smiled at her fondly before murmuring soft farewells and drifting away into the different patches of dark between the street lamps. Tohru, it seemed, was the only one without a car at her disposal.

"I'm sorry for dropping by like this Tohru-chan," Kagura said, bowing her head. "I seem to find myself running errands later than usual, ne?" She chuckled darkly. _Errands…_ "The library closed early this evening."

"Not at all!" the other girl said. She was beaming, her past embarrassment entirely forgotten. "I'm so glad I could see Kagura-san! How can I be of service?"

"Oh…" Here came the presumptuous part of Kagura's endeavor. She scuffed her boot around, avoiding her friend's questioning eyes. "Well, I was wondering… I'd like to come with you to Shii-chan's house tonight – I haven't called ahead, I'm sorry – I never intended to impose on any of you…"

"Oh, you could never impose! We all had so much fun your last visit – ah! Is your ankle better?"

"Huh?" Kagura looked at her feet, trying to remember. "Oh, yes, my ankle! I fell down the stairs didn't I? Clumsy." She smiled. "Eye of the tiger, ne?"

Tohru laughed warmly, and Kagura smiled again. She had always noticed that there was never a hint of ridicule or even teasing fun in Tohru's laugh. Her laugh was simply one that seemed to spring up in reaction to any smile in her direction; it was as if Tohru was a sunflower, picking up her head at the first glint of sunrise.

"So…it's not a bother? You didn't have any cleaning up to do last time, did you?" Kagura asked.

"Ah! No! Please! I'm sure everyone would love to see you – we haven't had many visitors recently since Momiji-kun joined his after-school club."

Kagura brought her hands to her face again to hide her teeth in her smile. "Thank you so much, Tohru-chan! Here!" She rummaged around in her little handbag noisily, and surfaced with a small package topped in purple ribbon. "A thanks for taking me in, Tohru-chan!" she chirped, depositing the gift in her friend's hands, a bit forcibly because Tohru was stuttering and didn't look like she was able to accept the gift under her own power.

"Kagura-san! Please! I cannot accept this generosity-"

"Oh…" Kagura bit her lip. "Are you sure? It's just some little girly things –a girl alone in a house of boys should be able to treat herself, ne?" She winked. "And there's some nail polish in there that I was hoping we could try out together, if you had the time…"

"O-of course! I would love to! Arigatou gozaimasu," Tohru cried, placing the gift shyly, carefully, into her workbag as if it were made of crystal.

"Great!" Kagura clapped her hands. "Let's go!"

"Hai!" And before she knew it, Kagura was walking through the streetlights and car lights with Tohru-kun like it was perfectly normal for two schoolgirls to prattle away in the dark and the cold late on a weeknight. Of course, Kagura thought, it very well could be normal for people who hadn't been cloistered and led by the hand through life as she had been. She didn't know what normal was. Tohru, on the other hand, had definitely not lived a sheltered life, and knew what it was like to not have her path set before her from birth. She'd carved her own way through – studying and always working, working working, pushing on without a Mama now; while Kagura had only recently gotten her first job.

Spending time with "Tohru-chan" had made her wonder if there wasn't something she'd missed in the last few years of her life. Doing more and more things she didn't want to and accept responsibility for her mistakes was something she'd had to learn in college, but slacking off seemed to have a more profound impact when her performance was directly linked to pay. It was a blessing that she'd found a job that appealed to both her aggressive and nurturing instincts in equal measure.

Tohru stopped suddenly and pointed ahead of them. "This is the path to Shigure-san's house," she explained. Kagura nodded dumbly, staring at the dirt trail that began at their feet. It seemed strange how the woods swallowed the path up almost immediately, while not a few feet away a road that had earlier been filled with cars and smoke and light stretched out further than the eye could see. Because the woods were owned land – Sohma land – they had never been developed; and it struck Kagura for not the first time that week how very _old_ the Sohma family was.

Tohru smiled and walked a few steps up the path, but Kagura lingered behind, staring uncomfortably at the spot where the path met the trees. She realized vaguely that she had drawn herself into a defensive stance without even noticing.

"Kagura-san…" Tohru had noticed her discomfort, and was peering at her through worried eyes. "Are you okay?"

Kagura nodded her head quickly. She reminded herself that she'd been under a lot of stress since she lost her diary, and that it was perfectly natural for this stress to make her more nervous than usual. Still, it was only her friend's kind, searching look that stopped her from demanding they trash the forest idea and find another way home.

"Tohru-chan!" she burst out. "Have you seen a book? It's my book – it's pink with kittens on the cover? I think I might have left it at your house last time I visited." Hope bubbled up in Kagura's chest, and she clutched her handbag tighter, waiting for a good answer that would soothe her anxiety and let her stop thinking strange things about the Sohma family and its stupid, scary woods.

"Oh no! I-I'm sorry, Kagura-san! I haven't seen anything like that!" Tohru threw up her hands in an appeasing fashion, as if she was committing a crime by delivering this bad news. "Of course, I could have overlooked it, I'm so clumsy, but do you remember where you last had it?"

Kagura barely registered her friend's flurry of questions and self-deprecations, her entire body occupied with the same sinking feeling she'd had when she'd turned her underwear inside out the other night and shaken it over her bed. She couldn't say that she had expected Tohru to say _"Yes, I've had it locked away for safekeeping and no one's read it _at all_,"_ but she couldn't say that she had really expected a _"No"_ either.

It was a crushing blow. She was already fighting back tears of frustration, even though a more mature part of her was saying that it was shameful to cry when there were so many worse things to cry about, like Shigure reading her diary aloud to Yuki and Kyou, and forcing them to remember things she only hoped they'd forgotten. This thought made her wail miserably, and she shook a fist at the forest in front of her. If Tohru didn't know where her diary was, would she really have to come in full-body contact with Shigure to get it back? She wasn't even wearing shorts underneath her dress!

A small touch on her shoulder drew her away from her depressing thoughts, and she noticed, shocked, that Tohru was looking at her with an equally miserable expression. Her friend looked ready to cry herself, and Kagura's shame doubled. She should have known that her bad mood would affect Tohru.

For a brief, split second, she was inexplicably reminded of Yun-chan, from a long time ago.

All Kagura could do was smile simply, once again impressed by her friend's remarkable empathy. This seemed to give Tohru heart, and Kagura quickly found herself in a warm embrace right there between the light of the city and the dark of the Sohma woods.

The other girl released her almost immediately, smiling her gentle, reassuring smile, and placed her hands together in determination. "We'll look for it when we get to Shigure-san's house, ne? I'm sure Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun would both be happy to help us, too!"

Kagura somewhat doubted this, but smiled anyway. "Actually, Tohru-chan," she said humbly, "that's really most of why I decided to go to Shii-chan's house." She blushed. "Tohru-chan… that book is my diary."

Tohru's eyebrows shot up, and Kagura spoke quickly. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you right away! It's just embarrassing, is all, losing something so personal." She wrung her hands, avoiding her friend's eyes. If Isuzu could see her now, she would be laughing her ass off. Or screaming. Either one.

"It's not that," Tohru replied suddenly, cheeks growing pink. "Sumimasen! I was just thinking how upset Kagura-san must be. I lose things all the time – silly me!" She knocked herself on the side of the head. "Like, I'm always dropping Okaa-san, and usually Hiro-san ends up finding her and returning her to me…"

Kagura had no idea what her friend was talking about, but she nodded all the same. She was taken by a small, warm hand, and looked ahead wistfully as she heard Tohru chirp something about, _"the sooner we get there, the sooner we can look, ne?"_ and was led off the street down the dirt path. Tohru's hands were still a bit sweaty from her work gloves, her handkerchief still damp with perspiration, but her late night labors seemed to have had no effect on her determination to provide relief to a friend in need. Kagura shook her head. Tohru was always ready to believe that the needs of others were more urgent than her own. She was glad to see it.

As they finally broke through the trees into the woods, Kagura thought back to this same selfless attitude in all that Tohru had done for her and her family. She thought about how Tohru had continually comforted Yuki when all of her hugs made no difference, how Tohru had run after Kyou when she could not. She couldn't say she wasn't still a little jealous, but that didn't matter anymore. Her cousins mattered – family mattered. She knew, somewhere in her forceful, childish heart, that Tohru was a bridge between light and dark for Yuki and Kyou. They _needed_ her. And that was why she was important to Kagura. She truly loved Tohru, her dear friend; but Kagura unmistakably, _unrepentantly_, loved her cousins more.

That was why, as the ominous dark swallowed them up, Kagura knew that she would have to protect Tohru – with all her forceful, childish heart.

_**Tohru would not be the last to receive this honor**._

* * *

"_So you're saying the killer had a personal connection to our victim?"_

"_I'm saying that when there appears to be no practical motive for a murder, we have to start looking for other motives. Whoever did this was very angry – he stabbed the victim several times, probably even after she was dead. He would've been able to look into her eyes when he killed her. He obviously had some kind of emotional attachment to her."_

"_So…what? They were related? Romantically involved?"_

"_That, or she just represented some other significant figure in his life. But the family would be a good place to start."_

"_I'll check out the brother first."_

"It's the cousin," Kyou said, rising quickly from his spot on the floor. He looked pointedly over at his own cousin, who rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but which one, baka?" Yuki replied, tucking a hand beneath his chin and leaning further back into the couch.

"K'so nezumi!

Yuki frowned. Somehow, during the wait for Tohru to come home, he and Kyou had ended up watching a rerun of some old crime drama, and now his cousin was killing all of the suspense. Watching television and eating were about the only two things he and Kyou could do together, and that was mostly because they weren't really doing it _together_. It was more like they just happened to be doing the same thing in the same room at the same time. Although lately that had been changing a bit. He wasn't quite sure if he liked it or not.

Kyou interrupted his thoughts. "Well, who do you think it is, smart-ass?"

Yuki looked back at the television, and a red-head appeared onscreen. "Him," he said automatically.

"He's not even her cousin!"

"I don't care. He did it."

His cousin swore angrily, dropping to the floor in a pout. "Where is that girl? I can't take this anymore!"

Yuki squinted up at the digital clock perched on the VCR player. "She should be here in a half hour," he said thoughtfully.

Kyou swore again.

* * *

They had walked for quite some time through the woods before the trees overhead became thick enough to hide the path from the light of the half-moon, and they had to look at their feet instead of each other to keep from stumbling. Their hushed chatter dropped down to reverent whispers in the dark, and a thin fog crept out from between the trees like sacrificial smoke drifting over the floor of a pagan temple. Kagura sensed that there was a thousand glittering animal eyes watching them, wide awake, but the woods still seemed fast asleep to her, oddly composed and listless and damp with quickly gathering dew. Suddenly winter seemed very much upon them, the time approaching for snakes and other crawling things to slip into a deep sleep and hibernate until warmer weather arrived.

Kagura was not afraid of forests; if hearth and home was her altar of prayer, then the wilderness surrounding Kazuma's dojo was her church. She'd first learned to meditate in those woods, find comfort and peace surrounded by nature's cocoon. But the woods near the Main House had never been that way for her. They seemed too much like an extension of Akito's dark hallways – undeniably a spiritual place, but the sort that sapped away strength instead of bolstering it. The Main House and all its surrounding properties – where the harmless became dangerous and the benign turned malevolent – were cursed as much as anyone in the Zodiac had ever been.

Tohru rubbed her eyes sleepily, like an infant, and immediately snagged her foot on a stone during her lapse in concentration. Kagura grabbed her arm to stop her from tripping. "Careful, Tohru-chan!" she chirped. "This ground is tricky, ne?"

Her friend smiled warmly up at her. "Thank you, Kagura-san! Forgive me, but I'm so glad that you're coming to visit us tonight, even if it is under such unfortunate circumstances. Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun worry when I walk through the woods without them. I'm sure they would worry if Kagura-san was alone, too, so it really is nice that we could walk together!"

Kagura caught the exclamation in her friend's voice and laughed. She didn't think that Yuki and Kyou would be concerned for her own safety at all, but Tohru's unfaltering confidence in them made her happy anyway. "Tohru-chan, Kyou-kun and Yun-chan walk you home?"

"Hai, sometimes! It's really much more than I deserve!"

Kagura laughed. "Of course you deserve it, Tohru-chan! Kyou-kun and Yun-chan need a chance to act like gentlemen!"

Tohru bowed her head in an unconscious gesture of humility. Kagura could see why her cousins were so protective of her. She just thanked her lucky stars that they hadn't come to walk Tohru home that night, because then they would have interrogated her without mercy about why she was coming to Shigure's so late unannounced, and she'd never be able to tell them, and then she'd probably end up hitting them or something to hide her embarrassment. Tohru was so much easier to commiserate with, girl-to-girl.

Not that the commiseration was distracting her very much from the uneasy silence that had followed them into the woods. Kagura wondered briefly if it was just worry about getting her diary back again that was setting her on edge, but that thought just didn't seem to cover the burning anxiety beginning to itch away at her. She trusted her instincts that there was something amiss in this cursed forest; she just had no idea what it was. She smelled smoke, but where was the fire?

"Ne… Tohru-chan?" She bit her lip hesitantly. "Why do Kyou-kun and Yun-chan not like you walking home alone? It's Sohma property, it should be safe."

"Ah, Shigure-san said says there a perverts in here!" Tohru replied cheerfully.

Anywhere else, she would have immediately thought about her cousin Ayame, and his bawdy little shop, but as it was, Tohru's answer did little to ease her anxiety.

Kagura heard a yelp behind her, and realized that Tohru had fallen behind while she'd quickened her own pace significantly. She apologized and forced herself to slow down, even though it was torture for her to try to put her prey instincts aside to fight the flight response. And then the sound of a twig snapping shot out in the dark.

Hell, she was never any good at ignoring her instincts, anyway.

Tohru reached out a caring hand to her, and she'd barely registered the trusting gesture before that hand was in her own, and she was hauling Tohru behind her at full speed, feet pounding desperately, blood roaring a morbid pulse in her ears. Over it all, though, over Tohru's weak protests and the rustle of her hair in the wind, she was positive she heard, _knew_ she heard, heavy footfalls drum, drum, drumming somewhere behind them to a chorus of sickly wet breaths. When she glanced over her shoulder and saw a distant flutter of grey, she knew it was done – the spell of silence had been broken. In running, Kagura had created something to run _from_.

A wrenching tug from behind sent Kagura slamming into the ground. She hissed when rock and grit dug into her hands but she scrambled to her feet quickly and helped up Tohru, who was chattering frantically, like something in her head had been knocked loose by the fall:

"Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai! I tripped and took Kagura-san down with me – sumimasen! Demo! Kagura-san, why-"

Kagura clapped her hand over Tohru's mouth desperately, and the other girl froze in her arms. She spread her feet further apart in an assertive stance and stared defiantly into the all-encompassing dark – _Sohma dark, Yun-chan_ – around them. Her peripheral vision was not as good now as when she was transformed, but even with her eyes set front and center like a carnivore, she could take in enough of her surroundings to see something stalking through the trees. She could see that they were prey.

"_Come out, come out, wherever you are…"_

Tohru stiffened suddenly in her grip. Kagura followed her frightened eyes, and saw that fleck of grey again, more prominent in the inky dark. She dipped her mouth low to Tohru's ear.

"Tohru-chan. Go ahead of me. Run to Shii-chan's and tell them I'm coming, please?"

Tohru shook her head. "What about you, Kagura-san?"

A voice rumbled out between the trees. "Hai, what _about _you, 'Kagura-san?'"

She snapped to attention, and took in the figure stepping out of the fog with wide eyes. It was difficult for her to believe what she was seeing. The man was dressed was so _normally_. It was probably the first time in her life that a grey business suit seemed out of place. But she wasn't an idiot. She didn't have to look at his dirty dress shoes to know that he was their pursuer.

She watched how his chest heaved under a pristine white Oxford shirt slicked with sweat, and listened to his deep rattling breaths. Not even the tame blue tie, slack around his neck, could conceal the raw strength in his thick hands and broad shoulders. He may not have been exceptionally tall, but Kagura was exceptionally little, and this hadn't seemed to escape his notice, because he looked back at them with black eyes licked bright, and smiled.

"Two birdies in a cage," he cooed.

Kagura noticed how his voice was slurred. "You're drunk," she accused.

He shrugged dismissively, but the predatory smile didn't fade. She narrowed her eyes. He wouldn't be going after them if he wasn't drunk. Kazuma had always said that men like this one, who preyed on children and anyone else who looked helpless, were perfect cowards. They only approached solo targets. If he was pursuing two almost full-grown women, he had to be drunk.

That, she thought grimly, made him ten times more dangerous. Even if his movements were impaired, it would still lengthen his reaction time to pain, and eliminate any tactical reserve that he might have approaching them.

He shifted, rolling his head to the side to look at Tohru. Kagura could feel her trembling behind her, but she had no doubt that her friend was putting on a brave face. Tohru's hand was firmly planted in her own, as if to say she wouldn't abandon her. Kagura's throat tightened. If Tohru ran to Shigure's house, all she had to do was do her best to incapacitate the man and follow suit. But if Tohru was unwilling to leave her behind…

She tightened her grip on the other girl's hand. She'd never encountered a predator like this before, but it was still obvious to her that her training gave her a significant advantage that Tohru didn't have.

Evidently, the man had sensed this too, because he was making direct eye contact with Tohru now, glittering black against honey brown. He laughed, deep and mocking, when her friend shuddered. Kagura clenched her fists, and ignored the heat and pain rocketing up her arms into her shoulders. Everything Kazuma had taught her about tactical defense, everything he'd said to her about keeping her emotions in check – she was already mentally tossing it all out of her mind like a litter of textbooks out an open school window. It didn't matter to her why he was drunk, or why he was there in the first place. All that mattered was that he was licking his lips and stroking his neck and undressing Tohru with his eyes and it pissed her _off_

"I don't care if you lost your job or had a fight with your wife or whatever the _hell_ your problem is," she screamed, throwing Tohru behind her and out of his sight, "you're not making _any_ of your damn problems ours! Get the hell out of here, you perverted-"

He roared and lunged at them, all raw animal strength with nails and teeth flung out to find vicious purchase, but she was ready for it, and she threw out a red-hot arm to meet his unshaved jaw. The sharp stubble dug into her fist, but the fresh pain of the scratches soothed the marks where her fingernails had punctured the scented skin of her palm. She knew even before he stumbled back, yowling clumsily like an angry bear, that his senses were too numbed by the alcohol for her punch to incapacitate him.

"Run, Tohru!" she screamed. "Run to Shigure's!"

But Kagura didn't hear any footsteps, and when she looked back, Tohru was still standing there, eyes transfixed on the man who was rapidly regaining his balance in front of them.

"Tohru!" She was yelling now, trying desperately to jar her friend into action. But Tohru remained in place, and Kagura had to throw herself at the girl to pull her out of the path of a fist that came rocketing back out the dark.

"Come on!" She seized Tohru by the arm and pulled her into a sprint. "Don't look back!"

Listening to their feet slapping the ground and her heart beating in a feverish rhythm, Kagura almost thought that they had a chance at winning the race. It wasn't a few seconds, though, before she could hear his furious panting behind them, and he lunged in one last demonstration of agility that sent both girls tumbling into the dirt.

"_Kagura-san!"_

When Kagura collided with the ground, she could barely make out Tohru's high screams over a sickening pop! that echoed in her ear. She realized it came from her shoulder, trapped between her body and an unforgiving tree root, and a wave of nausea sent her reeling onto her back. Through her blurry vision, though, she could make out Tohru sobbing, pinned to the ground by a man three times her weight, and she swung her arms up and catapulted herself to her feet.

Shrieking like an avenging angel, her hair flying in an immaculate halo around her face and her legs arched in a celestial bow, she leapt onto the demon and yanked him off of Tohru by his tie, ignoring the pain slicing up her shoulder. His hands flew up, grappling for her neck, but she scissor-kicked him in the face and sent him flying.

She was standing over his prone form before he even opened his eyes, a mess of softly rustling cotton ripples silhouetted by the faint moonlight. She didn't care that he had a clear view up her dress – and he didn't care either. It was past that for either of them. He sneered up at her darkened face and made a quick grab for her ankles. He never had a chance.

He only caught a single glimpse of her face before her blows began to fall. He was clawing at her hair and face, ripping at her wildly dancing silver earrings, but she was only aware of his chest heaving beneath her as she moved to pin him to the ground with her legs. Kagura thought she heard a cry somewhere in the dark, but it was clouded as she felt herself become consumed by a fire of her own building. Her nostrils flared - took in the exhilarating scent of her own sweet perfume mixed with her attacker's sweat as she landed another punch and another -

"…_Kagura-san!"_

Her fist froze in the air. Choked sobs were ringing faintly in her ears, rapidly bringing her back from the heat of the fight to the cold air and fog. The man was heaving beneath her, but all her senses were ripped from her body and focused entirely on struggling her way back to reach that terrified little voice. Completely sobered, she jumped up.

"Tohru-chan!"

After delivering a hard kick to his face, she was off of the man and in front of her friend in an instant, combing back Tohru's hair from her face to check for injuries. "Tohru-chan?" she asked quickly, desperately. "Wh-where are you hurt? Tohru-chan?" She petted her hair again.

Tohru was biting her lip in a struggle to stop the hot flow of tears from her eyes. Kagura looked her over frantically, trying to figure out if she was crying in pain or fear, but her question was answered immediately when she spotted Tohru's leg, stretched out in front of her like a crooked twig. Trembling, she touched her friend's knee, where blood was already beginning to pool, and Tohru yelped.

Kagura realized she was crying, too.

"Kagura-san…" Tohru breathed, speech labored through pale lips. Her eyes fluttered faintly. "Kagura-san…"

Kagura knew Tohru was going to faint. She needed to get her friend out of there, but if she had to carry her she wouldn't be able to outrun their attacker.

There was a moan behind them, and Kagura looked over her shoulder. The man was trying to work his way to his feet again, thick hands clawing desperately at the ground. Tohru tried to follow her gaze, but Kagura patted her cheek gently and guided her eyes back to her.

"Don't worry about it, Tohru-chan," she said, trying to blink back the tears. "I've got it, okay? We're going home now."

Tohru studied her a second before nodding stiffly. "I trust Kagura-san."

Kagura tried to smile. "Hai."

She wasn't smiling when she turned around to face their attacker. He was almost up now, caught somewhere between a crouch and standing. His eyes widened.

"Crazy bitch," he spat, wiping nastily at his face.

Kagura snarled, and delivered a swift kick to his groin. He fell to the ground again, yowling hysterically. She noticed his wallet fall out of his suit jacket, and impulsively picked it up, stuffing it in to her handbag. And then, with one final, hurried, kick to the head, she left him crying and motionless in the dirt and dark without a single look back.

"Come on," she whispered to Tohru, lifting her friend onto her back. Tohru whimpered when Kagura wrapped her arm beneath Tohru's injured leg for support, but she wrapped her arms tightly around Kagura's neck anyway and rested her head on a bony shoulder.

Kagura took off into the dark, leaning her head forward for balance. It occurred to her that her shoulder should be hurting under the strain of her new burden, but she only felt an uncomfortable numbness that was spreading into her ribcage. It was probably for the best, because her other shoulder was already beginning to burn under the strain. As her chest began to tighten painfully, she wondered how far they were from Shigure's house.

She ignored the tears streaming down her cheeks and picked up her pace. She was flying, flying on adrenaline and sheer desperation beyond the hateful man in the dirt and towards safety and warmth and home. Some part of her was soaring above, watching her struggle forward with Tohru's limp form draped across her back, and her frenzied mind couldn't conjure a stranger picture of a knight saving the damsel-in-distress than the one she and Tohru must have made now. Kagura had always known that she wasn't very good at being rescued. Now, she was painfully reminded once again that she wasn't good at rescuing, either.

She felt Tohru's arms begin to slide off her shoulders, and had to jerk her own arms up sharply to keep her injured friend from falling off. She was almost brought to her knees by the almost inhuman pain of torn and tearing muscles, but if Tohru had lost consciousness, that pain was the least of her worries.

Hot tears flew behind her. All Kagura could do now was run.

* * *

"_'Cuff 'im, boys."_

Yuki watched the red-headed murderer be carted away with a satisfaction that was plainly visible; satisfaction, because he'd been right, and visible, because Kyou had been wrong.

"Damn you! You've seen this episode before!" Kyou was on his feet again, glaring at his cousin.

"I haven't," Yuki denied stonily. "Anyone with half a brain could have seen it coming a mile away."

The other boy sputtered, turning red. "No, you saw it coming because you're a psycho just like him!" He thrust a finger at the television screen. "It's always the creepy, quiet ones like you that end up taking out their families."

"Yes. I don't shout like an idiot because I'm planning my next murder." Yuki rolled his eyes and grabbed the remote. "I guess I'll have to kill you now, so you won't talk."

"K'so nezumi!" Kyou wheeled his pointed finger into Yuki's face. "I wouldn't talk big if I looked like that bastard Akito! I'll bet he even gives you pointers!"

Yuki narrowed his eyes, and reminded himself that Kyou wasn't worth showing how hard that accusation hit him. He had always heard that he looked like Akito, but the pain of being mistaken for the family tyrant from behind didn't cut nearly as deep as any comparison between Akito's cruel ways and his own behavior. The truth was, if someone else could see in Yuki what he already feared most about himself, his fears were that much more real. It was almost paralyzing.

Luckily, he had Kyou to spur him into action. He was looking at Yuki very smugly now, and Yuki wondered if he should actually take his own advice and just kill him.

"Baka neko," he said. "I picked him because he looks like you."

Kyou froze. "What!"

"The killer - he has red hair. Like you. That's you being shoved in the cop car right now." Yuki waved a sarcastic "good-bye" at the television as a policeman closed a car door in the killer's face.

Kyou's hands balled into fists. "Then you lied, k'so nezumi! You never knew he was the murderer, you just pulled something out of your ass!"

Yuki folded his arms and frowned. "I never said I doubted my choice was correct."

Listening to his cousin launch into another spit-filled tirade, Yuki wondered when Tohru was going to come home and save him from another hour of late-night quality time with the neko. He'd offered to walk her home earlier that day, but she insisted that he stay home because she didn't know when she was getting off work, and he had "so much homework to take care of." This was true, but he probably wouldn't have mentioned it at lunch if he knew she'd be throwing it back at him a few hours later. He suspected that his cousin had fallen prey to the same maneuver.

Kyou began stomping around, and Yuki realized he was being talked at. When the neko shouted, his words tended to blur into a single, obnoxious echo that Yuki preferred to ignore, but there seemed to be something coherent coming out of his mouth now.

"Oi! When–"

"For the last time, I _don't know_ when she comes home," Yuki snapped, finishing the unanswered question.

Kyou's face turned red, and it looked like he was about to start in on another one-sided shouting match, when the dull _thud!_ of footsteps on the front porch punctuated the air. They exchanged glances for just a second before taking off, racing for the door with pure, ecstatic release. Neither stopped to wonder why Tohru's footsteps sounded so heavy and uneven. They were both just so relieved to finally have her home that when Kyou ripped back the paper panel, they could barely realize that they were seeing their worst nightmare.

Kagura was trembling violently on the edge of the porch, head down low and arms wrapped white and raw around the legs of another figure on her back, whose arms dangled limply on either side of her neck. Though the other girl's face was hidden in Kagura's hair, Yuki knew that it was Tohru's blood he saw mixed with Kagura's on the wood paneling beneath their feet.

"Gomen…" Kagura looked up, and he could barely recognize her torn and borken face. "Gomen ne…"

And with all the silent forest and moon and night as a witness, Kagura finally fell to her knees.

* * *

_**Next time:**_

"_YOU!"_

_Shigure froze when he heard her voice, partly in terror, and partly because quick movements were known to provoke her…"_

Kagura becomes part of a self-fulfilling prophecy, Yuki and Kyou get a verbal thrashing, and Hatori drives the Sohma family to the police station.

**_A Little Plate's Rondo:_ No. 2:**

_Unrelated fact: _herbivores like boars (or pigs, whatever) have eyes positioned on the sides of their heads so they can have a wider range of vision that helps them view predators. Carnivores like dogs have eyes positioned close together at the front so they can make the distance judgments needed to catch prey. So while we don't have the total visual range of a pig, our eyes are so close together that what range we do have is mostly 3-D, instead of mostly peripheral, like an herbivore. There you go. So not sexy, right?

Thanks for the reviews! I'll get around to answering them after I get some sleep.

**_About this Fic: _No. 2**

So Kagura hates Momiji's dad. It's pretty important, because they go really far back in this story.

I was gonna talk about how out of character everyone was in this chapter, but then I realized that they're pretty much out of character in every chapter I write, so I got over it. I tried hard, though, and I think there are a few spots that stick true.

No romance in this chapter, but there is some in the next - some Yukira, Kaguki, whatever it's called.


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